its a strange partnership,but a very effective one: satellites and space-shuttle-carried radar are helping archeologists.how?byseeingthrough sand or through treetops to locate important archeological sites.

　　take,for example,the second 1981 flight of the space shuttle challenger.during that mission,a powerful,experimental radar was pointed at a lifeless stretch of desert in egypt called the selima sand sheet.to everyones surprise,the radar penetrated through the sand to the harder rock beneath.on the surface,there is a little indication that africas sahara desert was never anything but a desert.when the archeologists studied the radar images,they saw what seemed to be impossible: there was sand-buried landscape that was shaped by flowing water; traces of ancient riverbeds appeared to be over nine miles wide,far wider than most sections of the present-day nile river.today,the area is one of the hottest,driest desert in the world.

　　more recently,landsat 4,a special earth-mapping satellite,aided in the discovery of ancient mayan ruins in mexico.landsat can,with the help of false-color imagery,see through much of the area.armed with these maps,a five-person expedition took to the air in a helicopter.